Extraordinary Measures
by FanWriterGirl994
Summary: Life is good for Reid. He adores his three children, 13 yr old twins Evina and Conan, and 8 yr old Isabel. But he gets a dose of reality when an unsub with a vendetta against him threatens to tear his family apart. How far will this Unsub go for revenge? How far will Reid and the rest of the team go to protect his family?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Pain

October 6th, 2028

A small, rail-thin girl clutched her tennis racket with every ounce of strength she had. As she stood at the baseline with her legs apart, rocking from side to side, she was more than ready for the practice shot her teammate was about to throw at her. She watched intently as the ball was served, following its trajectory across the net, and guessing where it would land. That was when instincts developed through almost a lifetime of practice took over, without making the conscious decision to do so, she ran a few steps to the left. Keeping both hands on her racket, she proceeded to bring it up and smack the ball hard in the other direction. She made sure to keep its flight path at a low angle to make it harder to return, and less likely to go out of bounds.

She loved every second of this. She loved the weight of the racket in her hands, the way it felt to hold its soft foam and rubber grip until her fingers went numb. Her heart leapt with elation each time she heard the trademark low 'thong' of the ball hitting her racket strings in exactly the right place, and she swelled with pride every time her shots landed just on or inside the opposite baseline.

She adored tennis and every last one of the girls on the junior varsity tennis team, but that shot had taken more out of her physically than she had realized. As soon as it struck as it should, she found herself hugging her abdomen, clutching her sides in agony as though counter pressure would make the pain stop. She'd felt a little off all week, some dull sense of wrongness she couldn't explain or identify. She was also faced with a strange inability to do more than pick at her meals, which had haunted her for several days; however, it was far from enough to tell her parents about, way too minor to miss school or neglect any of her four extra-curricular activities over. Right now though, it was anything but minor. She felt clammy, nauseous, and weak. The pain had become almost too much to bear.

"Hey Evi, are you ok?" Her teammate shouted from across the court.

"Y-yeah!" She called back shakily, forcing a confident smile, "I just need a minute." she added, making a beeline for the gate behind her. Once outside the tennis courts, she stumbled over to a nearby maple tree, clutching it with one hand to keep herself upright, before throwing up. She shivered as the undefined clamminess turned into outright chills, but she forced herself to head back toward the tennis courts anyway. It was all she could do to drag herself inside the gate and sit down against the fence.

She hardly noticed when her best friend, Kat, who had been volleying with another teammate on the court next to her, came rushing over and knelt at her side.

"Evi, hey...talk to me…" She pleaded in a frantic voice, putting a hand on her shoulder and shaking her gently, "Are you alright?" Beside herself, she picked up Evina's water bottle and held it to her friend's lips, "Here, have some water."

Knowing she couldn't keep anything down at this point, not even water, Evina shook her head, "Kat... I'm fine…"

"No, you're not Evi. You look terrible, you're paler than a ghost and kind of...green… maybe we should call your mom…"

"No, I'm fine…" Evi replied. Her stomach felt like it might explode at any moment, and her legs might as well have been spaghetti noodles. However, she forced herself to stand up anyway. She eased her way up by clinging to the fence behind her. As soon as she let go, however, everything within her line of sight began to tilt sickeningly and her knees buckled under her. She sunk back to where she'd been sitting before, landing with a small yelp.

She looked over and saw Kat's large brown eyes staring at her with a frantic, terrified look in them.

"Come on Evi, you are so not fine…" Kat told her, her voice laced with worry.

The small noise of footsteps grew louder within moments as another petite, yet muscular, woman approached. The light jog she was in allowed her black wavy hair to bounce slightly, while the complexion of her skin became more evident the closer she got. This woman was their coach. And the moment their coach saw Evina, her tough exterior cracked and became something close to maternal

"Everything alright over here girls?" She asked tentatively in a tone that said she knew very well it wasn't.

"Coach, I think Evi's sick," Kat told her.

"Kat, I'm fine. Coach, ignore her. I'm alright, really," Evina pleaded unconvincingly.

"Evina, you're going home. I'm calling your mother right now to come and get you," Coach said firmly.

"But…"

"No buts," She replied, taking out her cellphone, "Katherine, go get her brother, he should be on the baseball diamond with his own team right about now. You go get him, I'll stay with her until their mom gets here."

"Yeah, yeah I can totally do that. I'll be right back," Kat replied, taking off at top speed out the gate and towards the baseball diamond on the other side of the soccer field.

It was a warm afternoon, the sun shone overhead so brightly that it almost blinded her as she ran. As she approached the diamond, the junior high boys' baseball team came into view, apparently playing a mock game, half of them were in the outfield and half were at bat.

She scanned the field and spotted Conan on the pitcher's mound.

"Hey, Conan! Get over here!" She called.

"Kat? What are you talking about? We're in the middle of practice!" He replied, sending the ball flying toward home plate.

"I know! But Evi's sick, our coach is calling your mom!" She told him. That got his attention. She watched as he froze where he stood, his eyes suddenly wide with fear. He ran toward her, grabbing his backpack off the bench without stopping.

"Hey! Reid! Where do you think you're going, Kid? We've still got work to do!" Coach Bernard, the math teacher/baseball coach called after him. He was a heavy-set, balding older man.

"I'm sorry Sir, but I really have to go. It's an emergency!" Conan replied as he and Kat started off back toward the tennis courts.

"What happened?" He asked as they ran shoulder to shoulder.

"I don't know, but she had to leave the court during practice to go throw up and when she came back she had to sit down against the fence. She couldn't even stand up, she tried but she couldn't do it." Kat replied in a frantic voice.

When the tennis courts and back parking lot came into view, they saw an antique blue Volvo pulling up as close as possible to the courts.

"Hey, isn't that your dad's car?" Kat wondered aloud.

"It is," Conan confirmed. "Mom must have called him after your coach called her, but I didn't even know he was back in town…"

Reid was in the FBI parking lot. The BAU had finished and returned from a case in New Mexico just a few hours ago and once all the reports had been completed, Emily had given them the rest of the day off.

He was almost to his car when his cell phone began to ring, taking it out, he immediately recognized his wife's caller ID picture and answered it.

"Hi Honey… I just got off work…"

"Spencer, I just talked to Evina's tennis coach…"

He stopped in his tracks. She sounded upset, almost frantic. It was as though she were about to cry.

"And?"

"She's sick… she threw up outside the courts today and now she can't even stand up."

At that, Reid kicked himself into high gear, getting in the driver's seat and throwing his messenger bag and the large, square duffel that served as his go-bag, thoughtlessly onto the passenger seat.

"Where are you right now?" He asked.

"I'm out in front of the elementary school waiting to pick up Isabel, then I was going to circle back to the high school and get the twins." She replied.

"Alright, I'm closer to the twins' school than you are so you wait for Isabel and I'll go get Evina and Conan ok?"

"O-ok…"

With that, he hung up, put his car into gear, and sped out of the parking lot toward the school.

Liberty Jr/Sr high school sat on a sprawling ten-acre campus about five miles away from FBI Headquarters. Reid pulled onto the campus and followed a much smaller road around to the back of the building until he parked on the edge of the back parking lot nearest the tennis courts. He got out and ran toward them.

He found his daughter sitting propped up against the fence. His heart started racing at the sight of her. She was paler than a sheet, flyaways that had escaped her long, chestnut ponytail were plastered to her forehead by sweat, and her blue-green eyes were glassy and unfocused. Her breathing was loud and labored, and she had both arms wrapped around her abdomen.

Carefully, he knelt down beside her.

"Evi…" He whispered, shaking her as gently as he could. "Evi, Sweetheart, please answer me…"

She turned her head weakly, not daring to move the slightest bit away from the support the fence provided, and looked at him; though it was hard to tell whether or not she could actually see him clearly.

"Daddy…" She replied feebly. "I don't feel good…"

"I know, I know Honey… let's get you out of here. Ok?" He told her, scooping her up into his arms, making sure to support her head and neck since he wasn't sure she could do that on her own at the moment and rising to his feet.

As he carried her out to the car, he saw his son, Conan, Evina's twin brother, along with her best friend, their next-door neighbor, Katherine, coming toward them.

"Dad? What are you doing here?" Conan asked as he ran up to them.

"Your sister's coach called your mother and she called me, I was closer. Get in the car." Reid told him. He was trying to stay calm, or at least pretend to be, for Conan and Evina's sake, he didn't want to scare them, but there was still a frantic edge to his voice and it was clear that it hadn't escaped Conan''s notice.

Conan didn't need to be told twice, he immediately got in the front passenger seat and threw his backpack at his feet.

"Kat, could you go get Evina's backpack and tennis bag for me?" Reid asked.

Kat nodded, and took off running toward the courts and came back two minutes later carrying Evina's backpack and tennis bag, which the coach had repacked for her after calling Maeve, over her shoulders. At Reid's request, she tossed them on the floorboards of the backseat.

Reid laid Evina gently across the backseat of the car. He had a bad feeling about this, she wasn't just nauseous, she was physically drained to the point where she was almost limp, and heat radiated off her forehead like a furnace, a sure sign of an excessively high fever. Something, though he wasn't sure what, was very, very wrong here.

He hurriedly shut the door and jumped back in the driver's seat and pulled the door shut.

Before Conan knew it, they were turning back onto the main road, but they weren't going home. His father had turned in the opposite direction.

"Dad?" Conan asked. "Where are we going?"

"Call your mother," Reid replied, handing his cellphone to his son.

"O-k…" Conan replied.

"Put her on speaker…"

He obeyed.

"Hi Honey, where are you?" Came Maeve's voice on the other end of the phone.

"I'm taking Evi to the hospital. When I picked the twins up, she could barely even move. Something's really wrong, I can feel it."

"Ok, well I just picked up Isabel. I'm gonna take her home, then I'll see if I can get my dad to come over and I'll meet you there." Maeve told him, then hung up.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: This Can't be Happening

Reid pulled up outside the emergency entrance of the nearest hospital, then jumped out of the car, scooped Evina out of the backseat and almost ran toward the doors, as Conan trailed behind at his father's heels.

"Help! Someone help me!" Reid yelled as he entered the building.

Two doctors came rushing over to them, one dragging a gurney behind him.

"What happened?" One of them asked.

"My daughter, she got sick at her after-school tennis practice and by the time I got there to pick her up she could barely move or respond," Reid replied as the other doctor helped him lay her gently on the gurney.

Reid followed, with Conan right behind him, as they wheeled Evina down the hallway.

"How old is she?" the one who brought the gurney asked, as he shined a tiny flashlight in Evina's eyes.

"She's thirteen," Reid replied.

"Any vomiting?"

"Yes, once, at practice," Reid answered, remembering what her coach had told him.

"Twice." Conan piped up. "She threw up in the girls' bathroom earlier, between fourth and fifth period, less than an hour after lunch." Conan piped up.

"Who is this?" the doctor asked, looking at Conan.

"He's my son, her twin brother," Reid replied.

As they made their way down the hall, Evina rode, laying on her side, curled up in the fetal position, hugging her abdomen with every bit of strength she had left, moaning in pain every time the gurney hit a bump.

Finally, after the longest ninety seconds of all of their lives, they reached the actual emergency room, where two more doctors came to join them. Reid tried to make a note of their names and faces but nothing would register, instead, his mind reeled, desperately trying to figure out what on earth was wrong with his daughter.

"What have we got?" One of the new arrivals, a short woman with long, kinky golden hair asked the one who had met them at the door with the gurney.

"Caucasian adolescent female, thirteen years old, vomited at least twice in the past twenty-four hours, high fever, abdominal pain…"

"Alright, let's start by getting a CT of her abdomen and some blood work, let's see if we can figure out what's causing the problem." He replied.

Then they wheeled Evina passed the double doors and left Reid and Conan standing in the waiting room.

Father and son spent the agonizingly slow hour that followed, waiting. Conan tried to keep himself busy by doing his homework, but it wasn't much of a distraction. He couldn't focus on anything except the present situation.

He and Evi had always been tight, maybe because they were twins. Sure, she drove him nuts sometimes, and he'd drive her nuts right back. They'd bicker, they'd fight, they'd each do things just to annoy the other one; but at the end of the day, none of that mattered. At the end of the day, she was his best friend in the entire world, and he hoped he was hers.

He'd known something was wrong with her all week, she'd hardly eaten anything since Sunday night, picking at her meals just enough not to alarm their parents. Then, earlier that day, when she'd thrown up after lunch, she'd sworn him to secrecy and refused to go see the school nurse. Conan had no idea why Evina could never admit when something was wrong, why she always felt the need to be the strong one.

Reid could hardly wrap his head around it. This couldn't really be happening, could it? He hadn't just plucked his little girl off the concrete and carried her to his car like a limp doll, had he?

The minutes seemed to drag on and on for an eternity, surely the doctors would have figured out something by now, they must have…

Having Conan with him was surprisingly helpful, it provided a reason to make himself at least appear outwardly calm, even though on the inside his mind raced even faster than usual, swimming with possible causes for what had happened. When he looked over at his son, he could tell that he was putting on the same brave face he was. He was sitting there, trying to focus on homework, trying not to give away how worried he must have been about his sister; but Spencer knew better than that. Conan''s eyes darted around the room, his left hand was clenched in a fist, and his corroded pulsated visibly in his neck.

Spencer tried to think of something reassuring to say to him, but he knew that in his present state, nothing he said along those lines would sound convincing, so instead, he put a gentle hand on his son's shoulder and let the gesture speak for itself.

Eventually, he couldn't just sit there anymore, so he got up and started pacing around the room. It had been over an hour and there was still no news. He had a bad feeling about this. Evina had never been one to be sick often, so for her to get this sick, this quickly, it didn't make sense. It was enough of an anomaly that the FBI Agent in him, was deeply unnerved.

That's when Maeve finally joined them.

"Hey, anything yet?" She asked as she exited the elevator.

Spencer shook his head. "They took her back a little over an hour ago, there's still no news…"

"Nothing?"

"Nothing, no one's said a word since they took her back. They said they were going to do a CT and some blood work but nothing yet."

"Excuse me…" Said an unfamiliar voice.

They turned around to see one of the same doctors who had taken Evina upon their arrival.

"What happened?" Maeve asked.

"How is she?" Spencer added.

"Where's my sister?" Conan piped up.

"Let's start with the CT scan, according to the scan, her appendix ruptured, what appears to have happened is that something caused it to become swollen and inflamed and the blood-flow that would normally keep it alive was cut off. That's not unusual in someone her age. She needs surgery to remove what's left of it, but that procedure is fairly routine. It's her bloodwork that concerns me." He told them.

"Why? What did it show?" Reid asked.

"Her white blood cell count is through the roof, which indicates the very beginnings of sepsis, the ruptured appendix released a great deal of infectious material which is now spreading throughout her body. I ran all the standard pathogen and toxicology panels, what we found was a lot of bacteria which we expected given her cell counts, but the toxicology panels came up negative."

"Why is that concerning?" Maeve asked. "Isn't that a good thing?"

"Normally yes, but she's also showing jaundice. Normally, in a case like this, we'd suspect some liver damage from the sepsis, but despite clear inflammation of multiple tissues in her body, there's no evidence of organ damage. I don't know what's causing this."

Reid took all this in, in silence, waiting for the doctor to finish. He had a nagging suspicion, a hunch, about what this might mean. He hoped he was wrong, but… if he was right… that would explain it.

"Doctor, would it be possible to order additional blood work?" He asked.

"Well, sure but, what do you have in mind?" He asked.

"An IN1C6 panel."

"You do realize of course, that the compounds that panel tests for are extremely rare, most are either illegal or so new that they're only available in labs where they're being used for research." The doctor replied, staring dubiously at Reid.

"Yes, I know, but any one of several substances included in it could explain what's happening to her, could it not?"

"Well, that depends on the dose, but if it was high enough, and if she ingested it rather than exposure by injection, yes… it would not only explain the decrease in liver function but could also have acted as a catalyst for the inflammation that caused her appendix to rupture. Very well, I'll have them take another blood sample as they prep her for surgery." He replied.

Then he turned and went back to work, leaving Spencer, Maeve, and Conan with nothing to do but wait.

Spencer and Conan reclaimed their seats in the waiting room, and Maeve joined them on the other side of Spencer.

"Hey, Conan…"

"Yeah, Mom?" Conan asked.

"Why don't you, go get yourself a snack from the machine down the hall?" She asked, handing him a couple of one-dollar bills.

"O-k…" Conan replied, taking the money and heading down the hall toward the nearest vending machine. He knew full well she just wanted him out of the room for a few minutes. Why did they always try to protect him from what was going on? He wasn't a little kid anymore!

"So…" She began after they'd been sitting there for several minutes. "What exactly does this other blood panel that you suggested test for anyway?" She asked.

"It's another toxicology panel, it tests for inflammatory compounds specifically. A lot of them have been invented in the last five years and they're still pretty rare, but they can cause symptoms a lot like what's going on with Evi."

"Spencer, we don't know for sure that this was _caused_ by anything. Sometimes things just happen." She replied.

"True, but it was actually the jaundice that made me suspicious. Normally, a ruptured appendix wouldn't cause that, and if it had been caused by the sepsis there should have been evidence of organ damage but there wasn't any. Which means there's something else in her body that it's having trouble processing; and any one of these compounds would explain the rest of her symptoms as well." He explained. Then he paused and looked down at the linoleum floor. "The truth is, I've had a bad feeling about this since I picked her up today. I hope I'm wrong about this, I really do, but I don't think I am."

"Hey…" Maeve said, putting her arm around her husband's shoulder. "She's gonna be alright, no matter what. They're going to fix this, and if you're right, if someone did this to her, you'll get them, you and the rest of the team, you'll keep her safe. I know you will." She assured him.

Conan rejoined them a few minutes later, having bought a soda and a small bag of cheddar-flavored snack mix for himself and coffee for each of his parents. For the next few hours anyway, there would be nothing to do but wait.

Sitting there, while the minutes dragged by, there was only one thing Spencer was sure of. He wasn't going home that night, nor work the next day. He wasn't leaving that hospital until Evina did, he wouldn't leave her side, or as close to it as he could get until his little girl was her old self again. That meant there was only one thing to do.

Not sure if he could keep in together, and not wanting Maeve and Conan to hear him break down if he failed to do so, he stepped out into the hallway, took out his cellphone, and called Emily.

Emily Prentis was out having dinner with Garcia at a local vegan restaurant. The two agents had just ordered their meals.

"Sheesh, that last case was a bad one," Garcia commented.

"Well, at least we managed to save the remaining victims, and we got back midday, I mean, we were all finished with the reports by four o'clock, that never happens! I don't know about you Penelope, but this one was a win in my book. Lives saved, and top of that, we actually get a little down time for once." Emily replied as she lifted a glass of red wine.

The two of them clinked glasses and took a sip of wine.

That's when Emily's phone started to ring.

Thinking it was their section chief bringing them a new case, they both sighed heavily.

"So much for downtime…" Garcia lamented.

"Yeah, that's the way it goes sometimes…oh, wait… hold on a sec, it's Reid." Prentiss replied, seeing the caller ID as she took her phone out to answer it.

"Emily…" He said when she answered. She knew instantly that this wasn't about work and wasn't a social call, he sounded like he was about to cry.

"Reid, what's wrong?"

"I…I need some personal time…"

"O-k… that's fine but are you gonna tell me what is this about?" She asked.

"Evina's sick. Her school called Maeve when she was picking up Isabel, I had to pick her up from tennis practice. My God she… I had to carry her to my car, she was so weak she was practically limp, she couldn't even hold her head up. Hell, I don't even know how aware she was that I was even there. So I took her to the ER."

"Oh, my God…" Emily replied. "Is she ok? Do they know yet what's wrong with her?" She asked.

"They said that her appendix ruptured, they just took her into surgery to remove what's left of it. We're still waiting on additional bloodwork to make sure that's all this is. Look, I'm gonna stay with her." He explained.

"As you should. Listen, Reid, take whatever time you need. Just, don't even worry about it. Your place is there right now. Just keep us posted and if you need anything… you know where to find us."

"Thanks, Emily," Reid said.

"You don't have to thank me."

"Bye." He replied, then he hung up.

"What was that all about?" Garcia asked in that rushed, worried, _I know something's really wrong and I''m not gonna stop freaking out until I know what it is_ tone of hers.

"Evina's in the hospital. Reid called to ask for personal time to stay with her." Prentiss explained.

"Oh my God what? Is she ok? What happened?"

"He said that according to the hospital, her appendix ruptured. She's in surgery right now…"

As soon as Emily said those words, she knew exactly what Garcia would do with that information. She was already flagging down their waitress, which took a few minutes, but finally, she saw Garcia waving at her and came over.

"Ok, the food that my friend and I just ordered, we're gonna need you to make that to-go and put a rush on it. Also, bring us the bill."

"Garcia."

"What? I'm not just gonna sit here and chow down like nothing's wrong while one of our own has a major crisis on his hands. I'm going up there, to help however I can." She replied, having already taken out her tablet. While they waited for their food to arrive, so they could leave, Garcia was busily hacking hospital intake records to figure out exactly where her goddaughter had been admitted.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: A Family's Worst Nightmare

When Reid came back into the waiting room, Conan was pacing the length room, while Maeve attempted to distract herself by flipping through a magazine. He took his seat next to her and absentmindedly peered over at the article on the page she was looking at. Not that he considered last year's celebrity hairstyles to be of any particular interest, he was just looking for anything but their current situation to think about.

"You called the others didn't you?" Maeve asked.

"Just Emily."

"And?"

"And she told me to take all the time I needed."

"You didn't mention to her that you think this might be…"

"Might be the work of an unsub? No, I didn't. There's no point freaking everyone out until we know for sure something other than the obvious actually happened." He told her.

Maeve could tell, that as much as he was trying to pretend he wasn't sure, Spencer's mind was made up. She wasn't a profiler but she'd never needed to be to get a pretty good idea what he was thinking and feeling. He was trying to appear calm, but in all honesty, he was a complete wreck. His eyes darted around the room every few seconds, he was playing with his watch as if somehow messing with it would make time go faster, and his left leg was bobbing up and down at a steady pace. The leg thing was what profilers like him called a tell. This one signified nervousness, impatience, or worry.

"You say that, but you're pretty sure there's more to it than that, aren't you?"

He nodded.

That's when the heard the elevator ding, followed by the familiar sound of platform heels on the linoleum floor. A moment later, Garcia walked into the room.

"Garcia…" They said in unison.

"Hey… I was with Em when you called her. Is she ok? Do you guys need anything? What can I do?" She asked as she hugged each of them.

"We don't know anything yet," Maeve replied.

"She's still in surgery and we're waiting for the results of another blood test," Reid added.

"What happened?" She asked.

The two terrified parents shook their heads.

"She was at practice, she was ok, and then she just…wasn't…" Reid explained.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" She asked.

"Well, actually there is one thing," Maeve began, "I left Isabel with my dad at our house but, Conan should go home too; and neither of us is going anywhere until we know for sure she's ok."

"Of course, I can totally take him home…"

"Mom. I'm not leaving." Conan piped up in a determined voice.

"Conan your mom's right," Reid told him. "I know you''re worried, we are too, but there's nothing you can do for Evi right now. What you can do, is be there for Isabel. Right now, she might not understand all of what's going on, but I''m sure she could really use her big brother right now. Do this for us, Conan, please."

Reid watched as his son stared back at him, he could see in his eyes and in his body language how torn he was. He didn't want to leave Evi, but bringing up Isabel, and alluding to how scared she might be, had struck a nerve. He watched as Conan stood there, looking from him to Garcia and back, his whole body shifting slightly in each direction as he did so. Finally, he sighed.

"Ok, Dad. I'll do it for Isabel, but the second you hear anything…"

"We'll call you, we promise." He replied.

Conan nodded, and despite himself, hugged each of his parents tightly.

Garcia watched all of this in silence, a single tear dripping down her cheek. "Alright, come on Buddy, grab your stuff and let's hit the road." She told him, then she turned to Reid and Maeve. "If you guys need anything else, just ask. We're all behind you, the whole team, no matter what. We're here to help." She assured them. They each nodded gratefully in reply but said nothing.

Conan grabbed his backpack and left with his godmother.

Two hours later, Garcia had just finished playing checkers at the dark, oak dining table with Isabel when she noticed that Conan wasn't at the kitchen counter where he'd been when they'd started playing. For a moment she was terrified, but then she heard him moving around upstairs in his room, she was relieved, but she decided to go up and check on him anyway.

"I'll be right back." She told Isabel. "I''m just gonna go see what your brother's doing.

She climbed the narrow wooden staircase to the second floor of Reid's house. At the top of the stairs there was a hallway with four doors to go through, having not been in this part of the house since Conan and Evina were infants, she wasn't entirely sure which room was his on first glance, but then she saw the giant microscope decal on the otherwise plain, wooden door on the left side at the end of the hall, and decided that one was probably a good bet.

She knocked on the door. "Conan, you in there Kiddo? It's Penelope."

"Come in." He told her.

When Garcia opened the door, she found him sitting in the swivel chair at his desk. His computer was on but, whatever was up on the screen, he didn't seem to be paying much attention to it. Instead, he had his phone out, texting someone.

"What's up?"

"Nothing, just, science homework. We're supposed to take the last five generations of our own families and try to use that to inform Punit Squares about hair color, eye color, and blood type…" He replied.

It was the way he said it that told Garcia he wasn't nearly as calm as he pretended to be. Conan had always adored science, especially everything having to do with biology. The project he described should have been better than a video game to him and yet, he was acting like it was a chore, then it hit her.

"Who are you texting?"

"Evina… she should've been out of surgery almost an hour ago but she's not answering. Why isn't she answering?" He asked, sounding frustrated and on the edge of a breakdown.

"Ok, we need to talk, your bio project can wait. Come have a seat." Garcia replied, sitting down on his bed on the opposite side of the room.

She looked around the room while she waited for him to realize that she wasn't going anywhere until they talked about this. The walls were painted a sky blue, and covered in science-related posters featuring the periodic table, a telescope, a microscope, a DNA double-helix, along with quotes from various famous scientists. The bed she was sitting on was located against the same wall the door was on and had a plain, navy-blue comforter on it. Next to the bed sat a small oak nightstand, with matching bookshelves beside that. On the other side of the room, sat a keyboard. The desk and nightstand were all covered in knickknacks that gave the room the cluttered appearance of a masculine version of Garcia's own office, despite this, there was an impression of neatness. Everything had its place and not one spec was out of place when not in use.

Conan stared at her, then, realizing that she wasn't going to give up, came and sat beside her.

"Ok, what do you wanna talk about?" He asked.

"Evina. She's gonna be ok. You know that right?" She asked.

"Then why isn't she answering my texts?" He asked. "What if something went wrong during surgery and she's way worse? Or…or…"

"If something like that had happened, your parents would have called. Trust me, we'd know. Actually, I haven't heard anything from either one of them since we left the hospital." She told him. "Besides, even if she was awake, that doesn't necessarily mean she has her phone on her. Where was it when all this started?" She asked.

"We're not supposed to have them out during class or at practice, and there are no pockets in the girls' version of our school uniform so, in her backpack probably, her backpack, which is in Dad's car…"

"See? You're freaking out about nothing. I promise you, everything will be alright." She assured him, wrapping her godson in a gentle, reassuring hug. She was half expecting him to free himself in about thirty seconds, but instead, he returned her embrace. "Wow…" She said after about two solid minutes. "I never pegged you for much of a hugger."

"I'm a thirteen-year-old boy. I do have a reputation to uphold, but right now no one's watching. I'll let it slide this time."

That made Garcia smile. "You got it kid, and I promise, it'll be our little secret." She said, giving him an extra squeeze.

Meanwhile, back at the hospital, Reid was pacing nervously around the waiting room like a caged animal.

"It's been almost three hours." He said to no one in particular.

"Spencer…" Maeve said.

"They said the surgery was supposed to take two hours. It's been two hours and fifty-seven minutes," he replied.

Maeve didn't say anything, she just got up from her chair and hugged him tightly. "I know you're worried, I am too, but freaking out about it won't fix it or make any of this go any faster. I don't know why it's taking longer than expected, but right now we have to trust that they know what they're doing."

"Excuse me." Said a voice behind them. They turned to see the doctor standing at the edge of the room, with a grave expression on his face. "I''m looking for the parents of Evina Reid." He told them.

"You found us," Maeve replied.

"I have good news and bad news. The good news is that the surgery went rather well. The only reason it took longer than expected is that her body had tried to contain the infection by forming an abscess further up in her digestive track and we had to remove that as well, which we didn't plan on. Somehow it didn't show up on the CT scan, anyway, she's stable, she's in recovery now and we're working on getting her, her own room." He told them.

Maeve breathed a sigh of relief, but Spencer wasn't ready to let down his guard just yet. "What's the bad news?" He asked.

"Well, you suggested we order an IN1C6 panel, and you were right to be concerned. We found a substance called INC4, which is a very potent inflammatory toxin. Medical researchers use it to induce conditions like hers in lab animals so that they can test different treatment options, but they're considerably less sensitive to it, in humans, it's highly toxic. It can stay in the body for weeks because the human body doesn't quite know how to deal with it, it ends up getting treated similarly to alcohol except it's actually harder on the liver." He explained. "Anyway, my point is that this stuff is only approved for use in secure lab facilities, research labs and biotech companies, your daughter wasn't exposed to this accidentally, she was poisoned."

Reid was aghast, his worst fears had been realized. For a moment, he couldn't breathe. His heart began racing again, and his throat seemed to tighten in on itself. "H-how could this have happened?" He managed to choke out.

"She most likely ingested it mixed in with something she ate, and based on the amount of it still in her blood, either the concentration was pretty high or she got a massive dose."

At his words, Reid saw tears well up in Maeve's eyes, but desperate to hang on to her composure, she said nothing.

This couldn't be happening, but it was, and there was only one thing to do.

"Thank you, doctor." He replied. "When can we see her?"

"Once we get her settled in her own room. It should only be about forty-five more minutes. When she's ready I'll have someone take you to her." He replied.

They both nodded, and the doctor left the room.

Less than thirty seconds after he left, Reid had his phone out again, his suspicions had proven correct, it was time to stop waiting around and call in the cavalry.

"Alright, alright, I-I'm gonna call Emily back and tell her what happened," Spencer said shakily.

But before he could dial Emily's number, Maeve put her arms around him in an embrace that seemed as much about seeking comfort as giving it. "Hey… Look at me," Maeve ordered, forcing him to look directly into her eyes, "calm down, she's gonna be ok, whoever did this, if they wanted to kill her they failed, she's gonna be ok, and you know exactly what you have to do now. Everything is gonna be alright." She was trying to sound like she believed what she was saying, but her voice was shaking, and Spencer could feel her warm wet tears falling onto the shoulder of the vest he was wearing.

"You're right, you're right." He replied as Maeve picked up her things.

"Now, the second the others find out about this, Garcia's gonna be called back to the office. So, I'm gonna go home to keep an eye on and explain all this to Conan and Isabel. I'm leaving right now, so you can tell Garcia that I'm on my way." He told him, giving him one last hug and kissing him quickly, but passionately. Then, she made her way to the elevator and left.

Once she was gone, Reid dialed Emily's number.

Emily was back at her apartment watching the home and garden channel when her phone started buzzing on the coffee table. She answered it immediately without even looking at who it was.

"This is Prentiss…" she said. Then she heard Reid's voice on the other end, he was talking a mile a minute, she couldn't understand most of what he was saying. "Reid, what's wrong? Slow down… Oh my God what?!


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: State of War

Reid: "There's no condition one adjusts to so quickly as a state of war." ― Alice Sebold

After getting off the phone with Reid, Emily had reassembled the rest of the team in the conference room at the BAU. She hadn't told them what this was about until they'd arrived, only Garcia knew the reality of the situation beforehand. Now JJ, Rossi, Morgan, Tara, and Matt were all staring at her with shocked and horrified expressions as if she'd just told them the world was ending.

"What do you mean Evina was poisoned?! I thought she had appendicitis!" JJ exclaimed.

"Who the hell botched that diagnosis?" Rossi asked.

"They didn't. The original diagnosis wasn't wrong, but we're dealing with an Unsub who uses a rare, lab-grade poison to induce appendicitis in their victims. That's why I had Garcia make sure protection details were placed on Reid's house and her hospital room. Now, Evina's life is out of immediate danger but we have no idea who else might have been exposed or what the unsub's motivation was, and until we know that, it's not safe for us to assume anything. So let's get to work." Emily ordered.

"Well, the methodology is actually pretty devious on the unsub's part." Rossi began. "They used a rare poison that wouldn't show up on a standard toxicology report, which also causes a highly dangerous but usually naturally occurring medical condition, both of which are most-likely meant to keep doctors and parents from looking deeper." Rossi began.

"Do we have an estimation on when Evina was dosed with this stuff?" JJ asked.

"According to her doctors, it was at least five days and no more than two weeks ago," Emily replied.

"Garcia, were there any clusters or spikes of kids being admitted to the hospital with similar symptoms in that window?" Matt asked.

"Already on it, my friend and the one thing I can tell you so far is that it doesn't look like this happened at school. There are no reports that I can find of this happening to other students. I'm still looking into her other activities though."

"Even if it's not clear right now who they are, my gut says there's gotta be more victims out there," Morgan said. Poisoning her exclusively would be way more of a risk. Given the level of planning and detail this unsub puts into self-preservation just going by their choice of weapon, they're not looking to get caught. Which means it makes much more sense to poison a whole mess of kids as collateral damage."

"Um, guys… I think I found the other victims…" Garcia interjected.

"Who are they, Garcia?" Morgan asked.

"And how do they connect back to Evina?" JJ added.

"Both of those are excellent questions, unfortunately, all I have right now is the answer to the first question and that is…a bunch of kids close to Evina's age all of them from up and down the East coast… we're talking up to two hundred kids between the ages of twelve and fourteen. They all showed up in the ER with appendicitis, all within the last thirty-six hours."

"That's a little weird, to have that many kids so close to Evina's age in that short of a timespan, all in basically our own backyard," JJ replied.

"Oh it totally is, which is why I'm running these kids' names to see if they pop up anywhere in the same place as our girl at any time during the window the doctors gave us for her being dosed. If we can figure out where and exactly when they were all poisoned we can get a beat on how this creeper got into Evina's life," Garcia told them as she typed away at her laptop. "Hold up ladies and gents, looks like we just got a lead…"

"What is it?" Emily asked.

"As far as I can tell there is only one common denominator between all of these kids and this is it, they're all martial artists who all participated in the Youth Regional Martial Arts Expo which took place six days ago, last Saturday."

"Ok, that has to be where they were dosed."

"Garcia, do any of the other kids have parents with high profile jobs? Politics, high ranking law enforcement, government officials, or ranked military personnel?" Matt asked.

"No, nothing…not a single one." Garcia replied.

"Ok, is it just me, or does it seem a little far-fetched to anyone else that an unsub this organized and this careful would be this reckless in their victim selection? I mean, assuming for a minute that Evina was not the primary target, attacking an FBI agent's daughter is a huge risk the unsub didn't have to take. I mean, they had to know that we'd come down on them like a ton of bricks." Tara pointed out.

"That's exactly where my head's at. An unsub this cautious wouldn't do something so dumb unless Evina was a crucial part of their plan all along, which means that she is most likely the unsub's primary target."

"Was that ever really in doubt? Someone's targeting Evina, who'd want to, and why?" Rossi asked. "Is this about Evina herself or is Reid the real target of the unsub's rage? Maybe it's some kind of blowback from an old case…"

"My money's on Reid being the real target here, I mean, who would be this angry at a thirteen-year-old girl?" Morgan asked.

"One thing's for sure, we're not looking for a peer. There's no way a teenager, especially one as young as they are would be this criminally sophisticated. On top of that, the use of poison and the attack of a child without abducting them profiles as female." Emily theorized. "A male unsub would most likely want to kidnap, rape, and torture her, but women don't usually have sexual components to their MOs. There is no compulsion here, everything she's done has been meticulous and purposeful. She's gone to great lengths to protect her identity, it's like she wants Reid to suffer but doesn't really care if he knows who's causing that suffering or not."

"Ok, I am using all this info to narrow down my search parameters. That martial arts expo supplies food and drinks for the participants, there are food tables on the sidelines with things like sandwiches, and snacks and sports drinks. I'm running all the vendors and their employees for red flags that includes any connection to Reid, so far everyone is squeaky clean but… official vendors are not the only way those food tables get filled. A lot of the parents bring food too." Garcia explained. "I'd betchya anything that that's how the Unsub did this because while the organizers do keep a record of all the kids who participate, they don't keep records of who comes to watch, or of who brings food and who doesn't."

"Which would make the exact source of the poison almost impossible to trace, Gracia's right. We're probably looking for another parent or at least someone who came there posing as one." Morgan agreed.

"The question remains though, why do this at all? To make Reid suffer? We can go back through old files but off the top of my head, everybody with any reason to hold this much of a grudge against him is either dead or in prison."

"It might not be as obvious as a past unsub he took down, I mean, we all remember when Cat and Lindsey got together and kidnapped his mother." Tara reminded them.

The others exchanged uncomfortable glances at each other. Ten years earlier they'd returned home from a case to find Diana Reid missing, apparently having been abducted by Lindsey Vaughn, a former victim from a case ten years before that, whose father had been a hitman. Reid had talked him out of one last murder. In the years between the two cases, Lindsey had fallen in love with a woman named Cat Adams, who after a fateful takedown in a DC restaurant, was taken into custody on multiple counts of murder. Not knowing about their relationship, none of them recognized it at the time, but that had served as Lindsey's secondary trigger and caused her to abduct Reid's mother as revenge. Fortunately, they'd found her and Lindsey before she could blow up her secondary location with both of them in it, but if there was one thing that incident proved it was that it wasn't always obvious when their actions on the job put a target on their backs.

"Ok, who might have a less obvious grudge against Reid?" Matt asked.

The rest of the team thought about that for a little while but everyone they came up with was either dead or in prison for life.

"Guys, we're going to keep dead-ending on this until we get a better idea of who the unsub is. We can spin ideas around all night, but it won't help until we get more information. Matt, go to the hospital, give Reid an update on what we've discovered so far and do a cognitive interview with him about the day Evina was poisoned. Tara, all these kids were poisoned at the same event, so we can't conclusively rule out that it had nothing to do with the Expo itself. Go talk to Evina's teacher and find out just how competitive events like that get and if Evina had any specific rivals. Morgan, JJ, we need the security footage from the Expo, this unsub is probably too smart to be that careless, but we should still see if they're on camera. Rossi, you're with me. We're gonna go talk to Maeve, Conan, and Isabel and see if any of them remember anything about that day that could be helpful."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: The Plot Thickens

Back at the hospital, Reid was sitting in a rather uncomfortable recliner at his daughter's bedside, watching her sleep. The sedation from the surgery had worn off, but she hadn't actually opened her eyes yet. She'd always been small for her age, but she looked so tiny laying there, attached to monitors and IVs. Her light, chestnut hair stood out lividly against the white bedding, as it lay around her in an unruly, slightly tangled mane. The only real hint that she was even alive, apart from the machines, was the gentle rise and fall of her tiny chest. The only sounds in the room were the beeping of the monitors and the ticking of the analog wall clock. Suddenly, Reid's phone started vibrating in the inside pocket of his jacket. When he took it out to look at it, his wife's picture had appeared on the screen. Not wanting to wake Evina up, he reluctantly stepped out into the hallway before answering it.

"Hey…"

"How is she?" Maeve asked.

"Better… She's not in as much pain as before and even though it hasn't broken, her fever's come down more than two degrees…" He told her reassuringly.

"Is she awake yet?"

"No. The anesthesia wore off but she hasn't opened her eyes yet."

"I can't say I'm surprised, that poor girl must be exhausted, have you heard anything from the team yet? What have they figured out on their end?"

"Just that they do think that Evi was the primary target and that because she doesn't have any real enemies, certainly none who would be capable of something this sophisticated, they think I'm probably the real focus of the Unsub's rage, which is why we're all in protective custody until this is over."

"I know, there were guards posted out front when I got home…"

"Hopefully this will all be over soon, until it is though, we need to be careful. I don't think it's a good idea for Conan and Isabel to eat or drink anything that wasn't sealed or that you didn't make for them, that goes for you and me as well. We can't afford to take any chances with this."

"Alright. Now, I assume you stepped out so you didn't wake her up or scare her. You should get back in there. I don't want her to wake up alone in a strange hospital room." Maeve told him.

"Ok."

"Text me when she wakes up."

"You know I will." He replied.

"And Spencer?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you…"

"I love you too."

"Bye."

"Bye." He replied, hanging up.

Just as he opened the door to come back inside, he saw Evina's greenish-blue eyes open slowly. She blinked a few times and gazed around the room, like she was trying to figure out where she was. She seemed, apprehensive, clearly there were holes in her memory of what had happened. It wasn't until she saw her father that her body language softened, and she smiled weakly at him, as relief in the knowledge she was safe washed over her.

He smiled back, trying to hide his own apprehension. "Hi Sweetie, you're awake." He said as he returned to his chair at her bedside.

"Hi Dad… where are we…? What happened?" She asked.

"You're in the hospital. You got really sick and your coach called your mom, then she called me and I brought you here. When we got here they had to do surgery, but everything's ok. You'll be fine Sweetheart, I promise." He told her. His voice was calm, steady, but inside he was trying to buy into his own assurance. She'd made it ok this time, but he knew better than anyone that she wouldn't be safe until they found out who did this.

Evina shot her father a knowing look. "Daddy… please don't lie to me. There's more to this. Isn't there?" She asked. He didn't answer, but she could tell he was hiding something. Knowing he wasn't about to tell her what was really going on, at least, not right then, she decided to change the subject. "So… when can I go home? What about school? Tennis? Music? Tai Chi?" She asked.

"I don't know yet, Honey. Normally in a situation like this they'd release you in a day or two, but you got here and had your surgery so late in the day that they might want you to stay until the day after tomorrow. I promise as soon as they let me, I'll take you home. As for everything else, that will take a little longer. You need to give yourself time to heal before you worry about any of that again." He told her.

"How much time?"

"I don't know yet." He replied, seeing the sad, dejected look on her face at the prospect of missing out on almost everything she liked to do, he opted for subject change of his own. "How are you doing? Do you feel ready to eat something, like, Jello or pudding maybe?"

She shook her head. "The thought of food in general makes me wanna hurl, honestly I'm just really tired…and sore…"

He sighed, then bent over her and kissed her forehead. "You need some rest, go back to sleep. I'm not going anywhere until you do…"

On the way to Evina's martial Arts school, Tara made several attempts to get in touch with her teacher, but there was no answer. She was starting to worry that the dojo had closed for the night but the lights were still on when she pulled up.

"Hello?" She called out as she entered.

Out of nowhere a set of sliding rice paper screens she hadn't realized were doors, were pushed open. There stood a short, bald man of Asian descent who appeared to be in his late fifties. He wore the traditional white robes worn my martial artists, the shirt tied at his waist by a black sash.

"My name is Dr. Tara Lewis. I'm looking for Master Wu Yi…" She told him.

"You've found him." The man replied. "Come on in…" He beckoned.

Master Yi led her to a small, ten by fifteen-foot office, which was painted a pale burnt yellow and crowded with tightly packed clutter. Everywhere Tara looked there were shelves packed with books, trophies, and framed photos of the students he'd trained over the years.

"I was afraid the school had closed for the night. I tried to call ahead but there was no answer." Tara told him.

"Sorry about that. My last class of the night starts at seven PM, but my daughter, who also serves as the secretary here, goes home every night at five o'clock. Now, may I ask what this is about?" He asked.

"I'm here regarding a student of yours, Evina Reid. She was poisoned at a martial arts event she participated in almost a week ago, but it wasn't until this afternoon that she became sick from the poison and was hospitalized."

Upon receiving the news about Evina, Master Yi's eyes went wide. Tara noted that his carotid artery started pulsating, a sign that his heart was racing, and his eyes were darting in different directions.

"Someone, someone who also attended that event, tried to kill her. My team and I are trying to figure out why." She said.

At this he looked up and locked his gaze with hers. The look in his brown eyes was determined. He didn't even blink. "Tell me how I can help." He replied.

"How long as Evina been training with you?"

"She's been with this Dojo since she was four years old. My wife and my two eldest, my older daughter and my son, train the little ones. At twelve, if they're ready, they transition up into the intermediate and expert groups, those are the classes I teach."

"How much training does one of your classes entail?" Tara asked.

"All martial arts require daily practice, but students at this Dojo had scheduled group sessions with me three or one of the other teachers here for three hours every week. Evina's current class meets in the evenings at five PM every Tuesday and Thursday, and then every Saturday morning at ten AM. That particular week, the Expo took the place of Saturday's practice."

"How would you describe Evina, both as a person and a martial artist, based on what you've observed of her training?" Tara asked.

"Driven. That girl's tiny, but she's a hard worker. She trains more consistently than any other underage student I've ever trained, and she has the technical skills to show for it; but it's more than that. In tai chi, we don't use belts. Instead there are three main classifications, the eagle, the tiger, and the dragon. Within each classification there are three ranks, copper, silver, and gold. Advancing through those rankings isn't just about physical prowess or even skill, one must also understand the mindset that every tai chi master must operate in, and apply that in their approach to martial arts and life in general without even thinking about it. That takes a level of maturity most young people these days simply don't possess." He explained.

"But Evina does in your estimation." Tara guessed.

"She's the youngest person I've ever promoted to the level of golden tiger." He confirmed.

"Is there…maybe someone who might have been jealous of her because of that?"

"Not at this dojo, everyone here can see how hard she's worked for it, and she's too honorable to step on others. If she wants something, she just works harder and does everything she can to get it based on her own merit."

"What about someone from another dojo? I mean, that event brings together young martial artists from all over the tri-state area right?" she asked.

"The only one I can think of is Nathan Mitchel. He's from another dojo, somewhere in Maryland I believe. Since Evina started competing in formal events, there's always been a rather unfriendly, and mostly one-sided rivalry between them. It's never made any sense to me because he's three years older than she is, so they've never been in the same age bracket. On top of that, he doesn't even practice tai chi. He's a student of Northern Shaolin Kung Fu, which is almost as far away from tai chi in terms of style and philosophy as it's possible to get. Both styles have nine ranked levels, but in terms of how they're graded and what they have to do to advance, it's just not comparable, and yet, he's spent every year since they met at Evina's first event, trying to out do her somehow."

"How did Evina react to that?" Tara asked.

"She pretty much just ignored it." He answered.

"Thank you, you've been very helpful. If you think of anything else that might be helpful, please don't hesitate to call." Tara replied, handing him one of her business cards.

When she got back out to the dimly-lit parking lot, Lewis called Garcia.

"Good Evening, Superwoman, talk to me…" Garcia said.

"There's a name I need you to check out for me. There was a sixteen-year-old boy named Nathan Mitchel, who also competed at the expo and according to the master of Evina's dojo, there was some kind of weird, one sided rivalry between them. See what you can dig up on his family." She replied as she got back in the SUV.

She could hear Garcia typing away at her keyboard on the other end.

"Ok, here's what I've got for you on this Nathan Mitchel kid. He lives in Orlando with his dad, there's no mom in the picture. He's been kicked out of three different parochial schools since first grade, all for bullying. In third grade, he chased a female classmate during gym class and beat her with a plastic hockey stick. Then in fifth grade, he pulled the wig off of his cancer-stricken teacher's head in front of everybody and she was so humiliated that she quit her job later that day; and finally, last year, he cyber bullied a kid so badly that he hung himself…"

"So this kid clearly doesn't play well with others…"

"Not at all…"

"What about his father? Anything stand out there?"

"That would be fifty-three-year-old Jonathan Mitchel. He…is an attorney…a federal prosecutor to be exact and…ok wow…this is weird…"

"What's weird Penelope…"

"This guy doesn't exist anywhere before 2018… actually neither does Nathan, it's like the two of them just appeared one day out of thin air…"


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Trust No One

While Tara was at the dojo, Matt had just arrived at the hospital. He looked in on Evina's room and saw her fast asleep and Reid dosing in a recliner next to her bed. Not wanting to wake her up, he entered quietly and put a hand on Reid's shoulder to wake him.

"Huh?" Reid asked sleepily.

"Hey… Emily sent me…"

"Has there been any progress?" Reid asked.

"Some. We need to talk. Does she?" Matt whispered, nodding toward the sleeping teenager.

Reid shook his head.

Matt nodded. "Outside." He said.

Reid followed him out of the room and down the deserted hallway to an unused admin office.

"Alright, what have you learned?" He asked as Matt shut the door behind them.

"Well, we know when, where, and how she was poisoned but not by who. Based on the timeline the doctors gave us, and a little digging by Penelope, we figured out that she was dosed by eating tainted food at the Martial Arts Expo almost a week ago. Garcia ran all the vendors and employees and there were no red flags, no criminal records, no scientific background that would give them the means and know-how to do this, and no connection to or motive to harm you or Evina. That means it must have been another parent." He explained.

Reid started pacing, the way he always did when his mind was racing. "Why would one of them do this? You'd think it'd be too big of a risk for them to bring tainted food like that, their own kids would automatically trust it as safe which means they'd have to risk poisoning their own children."

"We think they somehow found a way to ensure that their own kid didn't eat whatever it was. We just haven't figured out how yet. Now we need your help. There might be details that didn't register as important on that day that might help us figure out who the Unsub is, so if you're up for it a cognitive interview might help us figure out what happened in a little more detail." Matt told him.

"Ok, let's do this…" Reid replied, taking a seat in the chair facing the desk.

Matt nodded at sat down at the desk across from him. He took out his cellphone and pushed record.

Reid closed his eyes.

"Alright Spencer… let's go back to that Expo. It was a week ago on Saturday. You had the day off, Evina was competing. What time did you arrive at Sports Center?"

"It was nine-thirty when we got there."

"Ok, you've just walked in. What do you see?"

"There are long tables set up just inside the door, with red tablecloths."

"Is there anything on them?" Matt asked.

Reid nodded. "Doughnuts… they had doughnuts and apple juice set out for the kids who were competing…"

"Did Evina take anything from those tables?"

"No. She wasn't hungry, we stopped and had breakfast on the way there."

"What happened next?"

"Evi went to go join the other kids from her Tai Chi class, and the rest of us found seats in the bleachers. There weren't many families there yet, so we were only in the second row up."

"What was at the bottom of the bleachers?"

"More tables, there's food on them. At first, it's just deli sandwiches and little bags of carrots, with coolers filled with some kind of sports, drink every two or three yards. Then, as more people started to come in, the tables filled up too, with food brought in by masters and parents."

"How long was it before the bleachers started to fill up after you got there?"

"Approximately fifteen minutes," Reid answered without hesitation.

"Ok, let's jump to later in the day, as a parent, your eyes would have naturally focused in on your own daughter in between rounds, but in those moments, did you ever sense anyone else watching her too?"

Reid nodded. "Yes."

"When was that?"

"Throughout the day, every time the kids got a break, and sometimes when the next youngest age group was competing."

"Ok Spencer, that's good. Now I want you to pick one of those moments, the one that sticks out the most in your mind. What is Evina doing?"

"She's at the food table getting a snack, but I can't see what she's eating from where I'm sitting. There are too many dishes and kids in the way."

"Ok, now this next part is very important. There's another pair of eyes on her. Whose are they?" Matt asked.

"There's a woman off to our left, she's sitting closer to the other end of the gymnasium."

"Who is she?"

"I can't tell, she's too far away and she's wearing a black tracksuit and baseball cap. I wasn't even sure it was a woman at first."

"Do you recognize her?"

"I can't tell who she is but I've definitely seen her before. She's familiar, I just can't quite put a name to the face."

"Ok, great job, you can open your eyes now," Matt told him, pushing stop on his cell phone.

Reid did.

"I'm gonna get this to the team and we're gonna see if we can use the surveillance footage to figure out who your mystery woman is," Matt explained.

"You think she's the unsub?" Reid asked.

"I'm not sure, at this point we can't rule anyone out. We have a lot of pieces but no real idea how they fit together. We know Evina was the specific target, but we have no idea who would want to hurt her or you badly enough to do all this, or why. It is suspicious though, especially since the use of poison as a weapon means that the profile does skew female. Whoever did this, I promise you we won't let them get away with it."

Meanwhile, at Reid's house, Maeve was trying to reassure her youngest child. It was after eleven, Isabel was hardly ever up this late, but despite the fact that she could barely keep her eyes open, she obstinately refused to go to bed. Instead, she was parked in her Dad's favorite armchair holding her sister's favorite stuffed cat.

"Isabel, Sweetie… why don't we go upstairs? Come on, I know you're tired." Maeve pleaded.

"No. I'm waiting for Daddy and Evi to come home. I'm not going to bed until they do."

"But Darling, they're not coming home tonight, you're sister got really sick so she has to stay at the hospital, and Daddy's staying with her so she doesn't have to be alone," Maeve explained.

This seemed to terrify Isabel, as she clutched her the stuffed animal she held even tighter as if her life depended on it, but instead of bursting into tears as Maeve half expected her to do, she stared straight at her mother, with a determined expression.

"Then I'll wait here all night." She replied.

"Isabel… please… we all need to get some sleep…"

"Mom?"

Maeve looked up to see that Conan had appeared on the staircase, she'd been so focused on trying to get Isabel to realize staying up waiting for Evina didn't make sense given their current situation, that she hadn't even heard him come downstairs.

"Hi Buddy, what is it?" She asked.

"Aunt Emily and Uncle Dave are here, I just saw them pull up outside…" He told her.

Sure enough, less than a minute later there was a knock at the door.

"Maeve, it's us, you can open the door," Emily told her.


	7. Chapter 7

Not long after JJ and Morgan returned from getting the surveillance footage, Morgan decided to check on his goddaughter and his best friend.

At the hospital, Reid was back in Evina's room, watching her sleep. He was wishing he could sleep himself, but knew he probably wouldn't. It was only ten o'clock but it felt like three in the morning. The last six hours had been an emotional roller coaster. He was torn. His every instinct as a father kept him rooted at Evina's side, but there was still a part of him that wanted to personally hunt down and punish the unsub who had done this to her.

Without warning, the relative silence was broken when his cell phone started to ring. He took it out of his pocket and saw that it was Morgan, so he stepped out and answered it.

"Hey Morgan…"

"Hey, how's our girl?"

"She's asleep, for now, the anesthesia wore off a few hours ago but she was only awake for about thirty minutes."

"What do the docs say? When do they think they'll release her?" Morgan asked.

"Thankfully there wasn't any other organ damage and the antibiotics they have her on are working, so hopefully she can go home tomorrow or the next day."

"Good. Listen Kid, I know where your head's at. I've been in your shoes, but trust me, take the time that Emily gave you."

"Morgan this unsub poisoned and almost killed my daughter." Reid replied sharply.

"I know; and I know you wanna help us nail their ass to the wall for it. But Reid, Evi needs you more than we do right now, more than anything else. Your place is with her right now."

Morgan could hear Reid sigh heavily on the other end.

"Have you guys made any more progress?" He asked.

"Yeah, JJ and I just got back to the office with the footage from the day Evina was poisoned; and Lewis and Garcia think they've identified a possible suspect. We're about to sit down with the others, watch the video, and go over what we know so far."

"Keep me in the loop please."

"Come on Man, you know we will." Morgan promised before hanging up.

When he got off the phone with Reid, Morgan looked up to see JJ standing next to him. Her blue eyes appeared to be twice their normal size. Clearly she hated the very idea of their best friend going through what was literally the worst nightmare of every agent with kids. "H-how are they?" she asked.

"Evina's gonna be just fine. The doctors confirmed that there was no permanent damage to other parts of her body and that the meds they have her on right now are working so, she's going home either tomorrow or the day after. Reid on the other hand, he's somewhere between terrified and royally pissed off. I don't know if he will come back in time to work the case actively or not but; if he does, I really wouldn't wanna be this unsub when Reid finally gets his hands on them."

At that, JJ lowered her gaze and gave a small knowing smile. "I don't blame him…"

"Yeah, me neither. Of course, there's not much we can do until we figure out who the unsub is. Let's get it done." Morgan suggested. JJ nodded and followed him to the conference room.

Once everyone had taken their seats, Emily began the meeting. "Alright guys, I know it's getting late but we are only marginally closer to catching this unsub than we were four hours ago, so let's do what we do best and use everything we know so far to build a profile. I suggest we start with victimology."

"Well, as a victim, Evina is as low risk and you could possibly get. She's a straight A student, she keeps herself busy, between school and her three activities, she's actually not home a whole lot more than we are, her schedule might be more predictable, but it'd still be pretty hard for someone who wasn't stalking her to figure out."

"Her Tai Chi Master described her as hardworking, unusually disciplined, and driven to succeed, but not the type to step on others' toes to get what she wants." Tara added.

"Yeah, my gut tells me that this is much more about Reid than it is about Evina; and as Rossi and I discussed on the way to Reid's house, this is extremely mission-oriented behavior." Emily said.

"What did Maeve and the other two kids tell you?" JJ asked.

Just like that, Emily's mind was back in Reid's living room.

She'd asked Rossi to interview Maeve, while she talked to the other two children.

"Who did this to my sister?" Conan demanded.

"We don't know yet, but we think you might be able to help us." Emily told him.

"How?" He asked.

"Well, we think this happened at the martial arts competition your sister was in, last weekend. I need to know if there was anything you saw, heard, or even felt that made you feel like your sister was in danger."

"Emily?" JJ asked, dragging her back to the here and now.

"Conan pointed out another one of the competitors, one that apparently had it out for Evina. Then he asked me if there was a chance this guy's parents might have done something." She told them.

"I heard about the same kid when I stopped by the dojo to talk to her teacher. He said their rivalry didn't make any sense because they didn't even practice the same style of martial arts, which means they were never actually competing against each other. So, thinking it might be about something else, I had Garcia dig into him."

"And?" Emily asked, turning to Garcia.

"The creep of the week award goes to sixteen-year-old Nathan Mitchell. He has a history of disciplinary issues and violent behavior. I think he's just an angry person, I thought it was a dead end, until I found out that there are no records on him or his dad prior to 2018, no birth-certificate, nothing. Now, even I know that he doesn't fit the profile like, at all, and his dad's a lawyer, not a scientist, which means there's no obvious evidence of either of them having the skill set to pull this off, but this is too weird to just discount."

"That is more than a little suspicious." Emily agreed. "But the patience this unsub has displayed so far reflects an older ubsub, and the use of poison screams female."

"So we're looking for a woman, who's getting back at Spence…"

"Right, and Reid's never been the womanizing type, so it's probably not a jilted lover, and even if it was, an unsub like that would probably go after Maeve, not Evina. Speaking of which, Rossi, what did Maeve tell you when you interviewed her?"

"She described a woman who she caught paying unusually close attention to Evina even when she wasn't competing, she didn't know who it was, but she doubts it was a coincidence given what's happened, and frankly, so do I." He replied.

"Reid said something similar when I talked to him." Matt added. "He described the woman as wearing a black track suit and a baseball hat. He said he recognized her but couldn't see her clearly enough for an ID, she was too far away. Hopefully we'll get a better view of her on the surveillance footage than they did in person."

"Maybe, Garcia, pull it up."

"Ok, just a second, there it is…"

At her words, a recording of a large gymnasium appeared on the screen behind her. From where the camera was placed, the team could see most of the length of the gymnasium. That included the area where the mats where placed for the actual events to take place, the bleachers and the food tables lined up between the two. The picture was clear but in order to get the wide angle, the camera had been placed on the ceiling on the opposite side of the room. Individual people there barely identifiable as it was and they knew there was no way the unsub would knowingly appear on camera without taking countermeasures of some kind. For a few minutes, no one made a sound, they all just sat there, watching intently, trying to pick up on anyone acting suspiciously.

"Can you enhance this?" JJ asked.

"Already on it, give it another couple of minutes…" Garcia replied as the paused image became much clearer. When the process was finished, she zoomed in on a young girl standing in front of one of the food tables with an unmistakably familiar brown ponytail with a small braid pulled in on the side of her head. "and there's our girl. It looks like Reid, Maeve, and the kids are just a couple rows up, like practically front row seats."

"Now that we know where they are, let's see if we can find the person they saw watching her. Even if she turns out not to be our unsub, we still need to talk to her." Matt said.

They scanned the area off to Reid's left, looking for someone who matched the description he and Maeve had given during each of their interviews. Finally they saw her, a woman wearing a black tracksuit who spent a lot of time looking in Evina's direction, and who seemed to be using the brim of her matching black and white baseball cap to hide her face from the camera.

"That's gotta be her." Rossi commented.

"Babygirl, blow that up and capture it." Morgan added.

"Way ahead of you, but unless I can find a better angle, there's no way this'll give us an ID."

"No, and with it already being six days later, the scene will be way too contaminated for forensics to give us anything useable. We'll have to find another way to identify her, but this still helps." Emily said.

"How so?" Garcia asked.

"Well she was bold enough to stick around and watch. Most unsubs want to experience the suffering they inflict on their victims. For her, knowing the plan was in motion was enough, but she had to take that risk. She had to see it, it's a compulsion. She knows that Evi's about to be in a lot of pain and that it will be psychological torture for her family but she couldn't stop herself from taking that risk."

"So what do we do?" Garcia asked.

"For now? We go home, we get some sleep, we come back and give the profile," Emily replied. "For now there's just not much else we can do and we're all running on vapors."


End file.
